La Vie En Rose

Future Perfect: Balenciaga Lands on Melrose

Close Encounters of a Balenciaga Kind

While Andy is all a twitter over the new season of “Battlestar Galactica,” I’ve been buzzing over a UFO of another kind—the ultra futuristic object that is the new Balenciaga store across from the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
Nicolas Ghesquière welcomed pals such as Selma Blair and China Chow Friday night into his newest lair, the second U.S. shop outside of New York, which he conceived with French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Like his technically innovative clothes, the space strikes a refined balance between an intergalactic dream and a beautiful reality.

But the 5,000-square-foot freestanding store, doesn’t, well, resemble a store. Past a cacti and black lava rock garden, and through the doors of the glass house, an otherworldly blue light bathes some areas, or emerges from slices of floor-to-ceiling mirrors. LED and other lighting fixtures throughout initially bring to mind a nightclub—at least one in a spaceship. And it’s all programmed to evolve as daylight progresses. Lighting designer Benoit Lalloz has been a longtime collaborator of Nicolas and Dominique.
There are the requisite flat-screen displays, although these are so advanced you actually feel like you can just reach in and touch the clothes on the runway models. Display cases are touch activated.
And we all agreed at the party that the marble covering the floor would be a strangely suburban choice if it weren’t for the way it appeared here, in geometric shapes and three shades of green (the building as it turns out once housed a tile manufacturer).

This is L.A., so the VIP touches include a minibar, and a private dressing room with its very own lav.
Not that any of this is necessary in order to get devotees here for the rtw, the less pricey Capsule collection or the menswear. An old world craftsman and truly modern thinker, this Boy Wonder's clothes, shoes and, yes, those bags are really where art and fashion come together.

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Getting Lit with David Weeks

A Forest Fire for Home

Had the utter pleasure of meeting product designer David Weeks. In L.A. to showcase his newest collection of lighting and furniture at the Ralph Pucci studio at the Pacific Design Center in WeHo, we met up the night before his Thursday opening at mutual pal Barbara Bestor's incredible digs high above Griffith Park. Andy and I have been fans of Weeks' work since we first laid eyes on his elegantly lithe lamps and chairs. His approach is to spare down design to its very, very minimum. Well, except for the funny gorilla face ashtrays and tealight holders in the form of oil drums and fire pits which he makes for Areaware (we all went home with a tiny porcelain fire pit!).

Collector's Item: Discontinued Lamps at Barbara's House

Eli Bonerz and David Weeks

It was a bit of a mad meeting of design junkies, from Barbara and David's fellow RISD classmate Eli Bonerz of product and patio furniture firm P.A.D. (and co-founder of X-Large) to Los Angeles Times home design writer David Keeps, who was covering the packed party for an upcoming feature on Barbara and the dream home she built.

She is the DJ: Barbara Bestor Gets Hi-Fi

Writers Ruth Handel and David Keeps

Velvet Hammer Strikes it Hard

Burlesque's High Priestess: Velvet Hammer founder Michelle Carr

Before neo-burlesque had a front-row seat at Paris runway shows or adulterated beyond soul with made-for-TV Dolls, there was Michelle Carr and the Velvet Hammer. Michelle was among the very first to twirl her tassels in homage to the broads who dared a couple of generations before her, and she rallied her friends to a small stage in a Mexican restaurant in east L.A. to unabashedly celebrate their creativity and femininity. None realized at the time it would spark a revolution, as it has been since that first show in 1995. I had the good fortune of catching them a year later at the El Rey Theater, and have enjoyed dozens of showcases ever since, including featuring them in a museum exhibition complete with film, costumes and artworks which I curated some years later.
Flash forward and a whole cottage industry has emerged, from conventions catering to the fringe, to fringe-trimmed wares offered by conventional lingerie brands.
Throughout it all, a growing legion of cameramen and women chomped at the bit to document the goings-on at Velvet Hammer shows. Why? Because front of house or backstage, this was the wildest circus on Earth, with beautiful freaks fearless of what God, the tattoo artist or good living gave them. Some 100 performers, including comedians, magicians and musicians, participated in all.

Buy the Book

Michelle and her marvelous mob are finally chronicled in a luscious coffeetable book, just out by the German art book press Die Gestalten. She spent more than a year in Berlin putting it together, and she’s back in L.A. hosting one party after another for the book. The high priestess and several of the original VH gals will be telling uncensored tales, sharing their elaborate costumes in an exhibition showcase and signing books at Coco de Mer on Melrose Avenue Thursday night, March 27, from 7 to 9 p.m. See you there.
Last night, I cornered Madame Carr with a bottle of Cava for a little chat about the book and the scene she kick started:
RA: What is behind the Velvet Hammer name?
MC: There is more than one meaning. A velvet hammer is a cocktail. We’ll be serving Velvet Hammer cocktails at the Coco de Mer event. It’s vodka, crème de cacao and half and half. And let me tell you, it is like a velvet hammer—smooth going down and then POWWW! Hammered! Another definition is a cunnilingus technique.
To me a Velvet Hammer ultimately describes a

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Beetlejuice: The Marchesa Bags a Raven

"Metamorphosis" by Raven Kauffman

I am always electrified when a connection takes place that can change the course of someone’s work, creative or professionally, particularly when the circumstances appear inconsequential (proving even the most seemingly minor factors never really are!).
For an accessories editorial I produced that appeared earlier this month in The Los Angeles Times Magazine (and which I was uncredited…c’est la vie), the story opened with a Technicolor image of an evening clutch covered in a fringe of Thai jewel beetle wings, each one hand sewn onto the lambskin. (I am obsessed with the naturally occurring iridescent emerald of these insects, and have three brooches made from individual whole beetles that I pin over a ruffle or shoulder so it looks like they are crawling on me.) This magnificent clutch, called “Metamophosis,” is the star in a collection inspired by the Marchesa Luisa Casati and designed by Raven Kauffman. The raven-haired Raven is probably once of the most underrated yet inspired artists today, whether it’s a home interior she’s staging or this new line of bags she’s designing which deserve to be described as “couture.” The line will hopefully finally pinpoint the spotlight on this truly stylish creature. At least this single image, which opened the LAT feature, might be a step in the right direction: the authorized caretakers of the Marchesa Casati archives and biography, Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino contacted Raven--and not to bust her for appropriating the fashion icon as she feared. And why would they considering everyone from John Galliano and Alexander McQueen to Dita Von Teese and the pair behind the Marchesa dress label cite her as a constant source of inspiration?

Marchesa Luisa Casati by Baron de Meyer, 1912

With her pet cheetah on a diamond-studded leash, her Lalique flask of Absinthe and tendency to go out in little else than a fur coat, it’s not surprising the Italian aristocrat caused a sensation from Paris to Hollywood during the 1920s--and why she continues to engage the imagination today. The two gentlemen overseeing her legacy actually were thrilled with Raven’s work, particularly how she is representing Casati’s eccentrically rich spirit through objects so exquisite that doubtlessly the Marchesa herself would’ve been a fan. Besides the uncanny similarity in physical features I just noticed, there really is no better ambassador than Raven. Talk about an afterlife.

Separated by Birth? And Decades...Raven Kauffman

Cat on a Hot Tin Stove

Chan Marshall Basks in the Sun

Dropped in today before taping began on the next batch of Oh Audrey how-to’s, this time with glam lifestyle guru Audrey Bernstein shaking and baking with longtime pal Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power. This was actually my second time meeting Chan—we spent all of two minutes talking at a lively dinner last June for Karl Lagerfeld at Mr. Chow’s in Beverly Hills, an instant encounter I didn’t recall until after I’d left the set. No matter. Despite the camera crew setting up, photographer Piper Ferguson documenting the day, and Audrey trying to get through make-up, it was a chill meet and greet on the expansive deck of this Silverlake home with an artist who herself proved to be pretty inquisitive.
The house’s owner opened up her incredible digs for Audrey, just as Chan jumped at the invitation to tape not just one but four webcasts for her ol’ pal. The two met 14 years ago on New York’s Third Street, when Audrey was a competitive snowboarder and Chan was just getting her first breaks. Soon after, Chan was among the band of outlaws enjoying Thanksgiving in her apartment. “I remember, we’d make cookies on the roof.”

Today, though, it’s grandma’s recipe for sweet potato slices drizzled with honey and cayenne—which, Chan, lighting up a Gitane, notes, “is good for your circulation.” She tells me she enjoys getting out the frying pans at her home away from home in New York, Miami. “I lived in South Carolina for a year and learned to cook there, and in Miami I have a nice kitchen with lots of room. I make a lot of vegetarian dishes.”
No meat? “If I want a steak, I’ll go out and eat one,” she declares. “On the road, there’s not a lot to choose from, so I try to make as much fresh, healthier options as I can.”
“What’s this? 'The Oh Chan Show'?” teases Audrey, hands on hips, as she interrupts her friend, now in make-up. No dice. Cooking, or even singing, it’s Audrey’s show all the way.

Birds of a Feather

Margherita Missoni Dreams of Wren

When a label is named after a character in a Dickens novel, it’s inevitable the clothes are going to hold a bit of drama. In the case of Wren designer Melissa Coker, the fall collection, guided by the idea of “tarnished opulence,” also happens to be delightfully wearable.
With the dust settled on last week’s unveiling, Coker talks about her muse, her mentor and her mindset through it all. Wren is also among the Fresh Faces featured in the A+R Gen Art Pop-Up Shop, open through the end of the month at my Silverlake outpost of A+R.
RA: What is behind the Wren Fall 2008 collection?
MC: Fabrication was a big jumping off point. I found metallic tweeds, cashmere laces and moires that I wanted to use in a more every day sort of way. I looked at pictures from the Ballet Russes, and how the opulence of their costumes looked to the contemporary eye through the patina of time. The idea of tarnished gold, ruined beauty, etcetera.

Melissa Coker and Heather Taylor

RA: What is your favorite look in the collection and why?
MC: I love the high-waisted fitted skirt paired with the silk pocket tank. I love the contrasting colors and, these days, I really can’t get enough of skirts.

RA: Your event at the Taylor de Cordoba Gallery in Culver City last week attracted quite a turn out of stylish friends and supporters (including gallery owner Heather Taylor). What was the highlight of the evening?

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Charming Creatures

Here are a few more snaps from my adventures this last week. Life is too brief to not put some effort out. Vive La Différence!

Boy and his Dog

Lolita Redux

Paint It Black

Illustration by Evelyn Black

So I'm absolutely blown away by this gift I received today from Evelyn Black, a young designer whom I met Friday night at the Jared Gold event. She emailed me this illustration with a beautiful note about her friend who would like to break into fashion journalism. Both the request to meet this friend and this work (complete with cleverly placed details of my A+R logo in the hair comb and earring!) along with her open, joyous enthusiasm for life are just so moving...well, I wanted to share.
If there's anything I've appreciated most about my vida lucky, it's the admirable, creative and big-hearted individuals I've been fortunate enough to meet along the way. THANK YOU EVEYLYN.

First Meeting: Me and Evelyn

The Gold Standard: Jared Gold’s Circus

Backstage Under Jared Gold's Big Top

Certifiably eccentric designer Jared Gold rolled his Tim Burton-style circus into downtown’s Union Station Friday night with a wickedly screwy presentation for his signature and Black Chandelier collections before some 1,500 friends and fans, who also turned it out for the night in their finest frippery knowing full well this was going to be a media event.

Jared Gold and Tracy Lords (seriously)

Host Clint Catalyst and designer Kit Pistol

And lensmen (and women) were certainly treated to an eyeful both back stage and front of house (everyone from the Associated Press and Women's Wear Daily to Uber's own camera crew were there--look out for the vid roll in coming days on Uber, in fact). The kids upped the ante for this closing show of L.A. Fashion Week, which was more of a happening club night than anything and made some of us pine for a regular (maybe monthly?) event that could fuel such an absolutely fun, freakish scene. The merry, madcap band Miss Derringer, fronted by Elizabeth McGrath, took the stage following the show, and a pop-up shop opened to guests, who immediately began hording striped shirts, candles and skirts decorated with Gold’s signature iconography, and even live Giant Madagascar cockroaches speckled in colored crystals and selling with a gold leash for $80.

Better than a Chihuahua: Bejeweled Bug

Admittedly, I went mad with my camera. Some 300 pics later, I find myself only able to post a fraction here. While I avoided most of the shows this week, this one was well worth the outing (and reason enough to pull out my electric green Indonesian beetle brooches which I pinned all over a black ruffled Viv Westwood dress).
Always the showman with a mind for marketing, Gold and his co-host/co-conspirator Clint Catalyst rounded up a model brigade of young internet celebutants to strut the runway, including Audrey Kitching, Chris Crocker (he of “Leave Britney Alone” notoriety), Raquel Reed (rocking a blue ‘do on this night) and 19-year-old Mathew Lush (an avowed vegan sensation who was swarmed by a legion of teen cuties post-show lining up and in hysterics--even tears!--to get an autograph). Also strutting in the sky-high Marie Antoinette-wigs were “America’s Top Model” runner-up Lisa D’Amato, ”Dexter” actress Jennifer Carpenter, model Tony Ward (yes, you’ve seen his profile and pecs from L’uomo Vogue to Dolce & Gabanna campaigns) and that perennial porn-turned-actress favorite Tracy Lords.

Tony Ward

Runway to Reality: Westwood for the Club Kids

As for the collection: Dubbed “Czarina,” Gold cites the elaborate imagery in the productions of ballet icon Vasilav Nijinksy and his Bolshoi dance theater. It was certainly hallmark Gold, from the striped capes and shifts that riff on vaudeville and pirates to the skirts screened with imagery. That is something he did long before Libertine. Yet, like Libertine, it’s ultimately diluted Westwood for the club kid masses. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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Villaraigosa Opens Up the Mayor's Digs for Fashion Week

FutureFashion at the Mayor's Digs

It’s always sweet when a father acknowledges a daughter before a crowd. But for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, when time came last night to give props to his 14-year-old daughter Natalie Fe for her push to host the FutureFashion event at their official home, it was the one moment in the evening when he didn’t sound like the career politician or even slightly awkward addressing the fashion industry crowd.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Trovata's John Whitledge

Nearly 300 of the city’s most influential players in one of the city’s top industries turned out Thursday night at the Getty House, the official mayoral residence just outside Hancock Park, for a bash showcasing eco-friendly fashion by 17 worthy Los Angeles designers. With the guidance of co-host Earth Pledge, whose Future Fashion initiative partners with businesses and government to step up the adoption of eco-minded sustainable practices, designers such as Deborah Lindquist, Hazel Brown, Rozae Nichols, Stewart+Brown, Tree and The Strongohold created beautiful, wearable women’s wear.
“We can’t leave until I see everything,” insisted Julie Gilhart of Barneys New York as she headed toward the mannequins positioned around the pelican sculpture fountain at the sunset garden party. With key buyers such as Gilhart there, as well stylist Arianne Phillips and a host of national magazine editors, this was undeniably a highlight of fashion week here. The seal of support of event co-host Council of Fashion Designers of America only added to its relevance. While CFDA prez Diane Von Furstenberg was a no-show, exec director Stephen Kolb addressed the crowd following Villaraigosa and fellow co-hosts Ed Mandelbaum and Barbara Kramer (a green activist who actually initiated the partnership with Earth Pledge).
The Los Angeles Times Magazine and Image section also shared billing, prompting Villaraigosa to joke of the usually strained relationship between the publication and him.
With local CFDA members Magda Berliner, Rozae Nichols, Trina Turk, VPL and Trovata also providing looks, there was a general hope that this would not only encourage greater involvement by the New York-based organization in Los Angeles fashion, but that the event could signal a desperately needed shift in fashion week in this city. For Villaraigosa, who described his young daughter as a “fashionista” and whose 30-year-old daughter Prisila Villar-Contreras is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, it’s evidently only the start. With the assistance of D&A’s Kramer and others, he’s already begun a task force. And like a consummate politician, as he shook guests’ hands while firmly holding their elbow each time, he repeated his night’s mantra: “You should call my office and get involved.”

Save Earth: Wear Tree

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Holy Toledo!

Isabel and Ruben Toledo by Ruben Toledo

Last night capped not one but two evenings with not two but three Toledos. Designer Isabel Toledo and illustrator Ruben Toledo were in town participating in "Inside the Designer’s Studio," an annual lecture series hosted by Otis fashion school’s chair Rosemary Brantley (and which we all hope will find wider exposure on television or YouTube or where ever some day). The Tuesday evening event at the Pacific Design Center's Silver Screen Theater was sold out and included Toledo champions such as Vogue's ed-at-large Andre Leon Talley, Lily et Cie's Rita Watnik and Annie Flanders (who gave Ruben his big break in the original incarnation of Details magazine--when it was a cool pop cult pub and not a magalog for metrosexuals).

Onstage at the Silver Screen Theater

Annie joined the amazing couple and us, along with Liz Goldwyn and her other half Frank Longo last night over a Japanese feast prepped by Andy at our home. So it only made sense to include our artist friend Valentin TOLEDO, along with his hubby Armen Sanasarian. It was a night of sushi with plenty of Spanish speak!

Barbara Kramer, Andre Leon Talley, ALT's Assitant and Ruben Toledo

If you haven't read the well-written feature on Isabel and Ruben by Judith Thurman in this week's New Yorker on Ruben and Isabel, do right now.

My own humble piece on them in last Sunday's LA Times Mag was shrunk due to space (including the brief Q&A). But you can read it in full at the jump.

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Martin Parr @ L.A. by Paul Smith

Martin Parr is a funny man. Not because his candid, Technicolor photographs of plain folk often conjure a smile, even a giggle--especially if someone like funny woman Tracey Ullman is channeling every stereotypical voice in her fast and brilliant mind to describe Parr's pics of holiday makers in Britain's seaside towns, as she did during desert after grabbing my copy of his photo book "Resort." No, Martin Parr is just funny in that droll sort of way that comes from someone who's observed the beauty in human joy and fragility long enough to be comfortable in his own skin and not act like some pompous legend.

Amy Fleetwood and daughter

Of course, he is a legend. A social documentarian who has inspired a generation of photographers, Martin doesn't use Photoshop, instead employing a flash and "amateur" color film to achieve the highly saturated effect that conveys an ultrarealism that borders on the grotesque--much like the old vintage color photo postcards he obsessively collects--but is ultimately beautiful in their banality.
Leisure is only one of Martin's obsessions. He also focuses his eye on consumption in all its forms, specifically food, gambling, or the fixation of collecting. In this case, fashion appears to be the not so much the target as the consideration. He partnered with another equally insightful, eccentric Brit, Paul Smith, by snapping images of regular folk on the streets of lford, Essex, clothed in selections from the designer's Fall/Winter 2007 collection. The resulting 15-image series, "Paul Smith @ Ilford by Martin Parr," began in Tokyo last year, stopped in Paris and finally has made its third stop at the hot pink Paul Smith flagship on Melrose Avenue in L.A. The exhibition opened last night to a packed house that included rock heroes Kevin Haskins and Debbie Harry (unreal finally connecting with her...I don't usually get excited about meeting celebs, but her? Too cool.), and a whole host of fantastically dressed guests for a Monday night!

Debbie Harry and Me

About 18 of us, including writer Bruce Wagner, designer Michael Schmidt, costume designers Arianne Phillips and Nancy Steiner, then headed to the garden of the Chateau Marmont, to celebrate the show with Martin over a late-night sup. With the occasional warm wind of madness blowing the palm trees, the March evening couldn't be more perfect. To Martin's right sat Rose Shoshana, the delightful owner of the RoseGallery at Bergamot Station, where Martin has long shown. His visit to L.A. also included the opening this weekend of another show at RoseGallery, along with work by Chris Killip and Graham Smith (the first time those two appear in a commercial gallery in the U.S.). She quickly introduced me to Graciela Iturbide, a beautiful Mexico City photographer (talk about legends!) she also represents. But this time, a four-decade survey of her work is at the Getty Center (through April 13. GO!).
Once Lisa Edelstein and her brilliant beau skiddadled out of there (she had a 4:30 a.m. call to the set of "House"), I scooted up the couple of vacant seats to Mr. Parr's side. Tracey and my Andy proceeded to have a good ol' time going through "Resort," occasionally piping up and making everyone laugh. But seated next to Martin, taking in his unforced quips, I was having the best time of all.

Lisa Edelstein and Giammario Villa

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